In the last decade the development in vibration analysis was char-
acterized by increasing demands on precision and by the growing use of
electronic computers. At present, improvements in precision are obtained
by a more accurate modelling of technical systems. Thus, for instance, a
system with one degree of freedom is often not accepted, as it used to
be, as a model for vibration analysis in mechanical engineering. As a
rule, vehicles and machines have to be modelled as systems with many
degrees of freedom such as multibody systems, finite element systems or
con- tinua. The mathematical description of multi-degree-of-freedom
systems leads to matrix representations of the corresponding equations.
These are then conveniently analyzed by means of electronic computers,
that is, by the analog computer and especially by the digital machine.
Hence there exists a mutually stimulating interaction between the
growing require- ments and the increasing computational facilities. The
present book deals with linear vibration analysis of technical systems
with many degrees of freedom in a form allowing the use of computers for
finding solutions. Part I begins with the classification of vibrating
systems. The main characteristics here are the kind of differential
equation, the time depen- dence of the coefficients and the attributes
of the exciting process. Next it is shown by giving examples involving
mechanical vibrating systems how to set up equations of motion and how
to transform these into state equations.